Minister Gwede Mantashe. (Photo: Freddy Mavunda / Business Day) 
Mantashe came out swinging at the online Joburg Mining Indaba, rising to the defence of nuclear and coal just weeks ahead of the next big UN climate conference, which is being held as global food prices soar in the face of extreme weather events across the world.
In fairness to the minister, South Africa is not going to close down its coal-fired power stations next week, even if Eskom has been found to be the most polluting power company in the world. History and geology have conspired to make South Africa dependent on fossil fuel for the immediate future. Coal prices have even surged to record highs because of shortages in China — which has also pledged not to fund new coal power stations abroad, a policy that could starve South Africa of capital for such projects as commercial banks also stop financing coal.
Green energy clearly has a bright future under South Africa’s sunny skies, but the minister keeps shrouding the forecast with a cloudy vision.
“I am not saying coal forever... I am saying let’s manage our transition step by step rather than being emotional,” Mantashe told the conference, organised by Resources4Africa.
“We are asking investors to partner with us as we seek to move from a high carbon to a low carbon environment,” he said. That all sounds reasonable, but on green issues, Mantashe comes across as unconvincing. His scepticism of renewables remains barely disguised.
He again held up nuclear, which is low carbon but clearly unaffordable for the fiscal train wreck that is South Africa. And any deal that involved, say, Russia, should be treated as radioactive because of the corruption that would almost certainly taint it. There is a reason why former president Jacob Zuma of all people was so keen on a nuclear deal with Moscow.
“Nuclear is going to be the saviour ... because renewables have no baseload,” Mantashe said as he outlined his vision of decarbonisation. “The quickest (route) is going to be nuclear.”
That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of solar, wind or surf — three items that South Africa has no shortage of.
Mantashe went on — in response to a question about his view on the possible refunding of Eskom with soft financing to spur green power — to perplexingly say that: “I’m suspicious of any problem that is based on money”.
“We should not collapse our economy because we agreed to green funding,” he said.
So, rather do a nuclear deal and finally break the Treasury. That is a problem “based on money” that should arouse suspicion.
Business Maverick has been reliably told that climate envoys were rattled by his remarks.
Meanwhile, at the Sandton Convention Centre, the president on Thursday was outlining a vision of green hydrogen.
“One of the new frontiers of infrastructure development is green energy, which has the potential not only to drive industrialisation, but to establish a whole new industrial reality,” Ramaphosa told the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium.
He spoke of a “... future where tens of gigawatts of renewable energy feed electrolysers at massive scale, producing the hydrogen powerfuels of the future. We stand ready to be a major exporter in this market, to use hydrogen to rapidly decarbonise our existing industries, and attract industrial investment from across the globe seeking to meet new standards of green power in the production process.”
Talk about mixed messaging. And all this hot air is not going to attract investors who once again will be left scratching their heads. OBP/BM